DOWNHAM

In the obituary of Zachary Clarke, husband of the recipient, in the Gentleman's Magazine for September 1815, it is stated that he also 'established a free school on Dr. Bell's system, and has since employed a teacher to superintend it'. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 8vo. Thirty-eight lines of text. The other leaf or leaves of the letter are missing. The cover leaf, addressed on reverse with two illegible postmarks, 'To / Elizabeth Clarke - / at Zachary Clarkes / Downham / Norfolk -'. Signed 'J. Lancaster'.

See Fisher’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Earlier in 1915 he had joined the Asquith government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, and he would retain this post until June of 1917, when Lloyd George would promote him to the cabinet as President of the Local Government Board. The recipient Willoughby Hyett Dickinson (1859-1943), later an influential proponent of the League of Nations, began his career as a Liberal MP. He was knighted in 1918, and elevated to the peerage as Baron Dickinson of Painswick in 1930, the same year in which he joined the Labour Party.

15pp., folio. Stapled. In light-green printed wraps. With black and white photographic frontispiece illustration of 'West Dereham Abbey'; and coloured 50 x 76 cm. fold-out 'Plan of Estates at West Dereham, Norfolk, for Sale by Auction by Salter, Simpson & Sons in comnjunction with Messrs. Bidwell 1894', by 'Alger & Son, Litho. Diss'. Aged, worn and creased, with rusted staples, and map with closed tear and fraying to its outer edge. Containing descriptions of the twenty-five lots into which the estate is divided for the purposes of the sale ('The Estate, containing 1170a. 2r.